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Wood-burning Fireplace Insert
fish
Registered Users Posts: 2,950 Major grins
I finally got tired of burning 20 logs a night in our conventional fireplace *and* paying a big PG&E bill. So we decided to buy a Regency wood-burning fireplace insert. The firebox is a lot smaller, but it puts out heat like you wouldn't believe. I figure our regular fireplace was 10% efficient, meaning 90% of the heat went up the chimney. This insert is 77% efficient, meaning only 23% of the heat goes up the chimney, and the rest is usable heat in the house. When I've got it burning, the house forced-air furnaces don't even come on. My best guess is that this insert will pay for itself in two, perhaps three seasons. I can't wait to see my next PG&E bill, because it should be much lower than last month. Now if I can only get the kids to stop taking such long baths 
Here's my little photo essay, if you're as bored as I am...
This is a 500lb cold steel stove, made in the Great White North (tm), eh. 24k gold plated cast iron door. Some serious hardware, no doubt about it.
First thing we gotta do is get a guy on the roof and have him give the 25' chimney a good sweeping. Better him than me, cuz I'm afraid of heights. :yikes
Hi Gary! :wave
Had to have a custom double walled flexible stainless flu liner made. They're typically 6" diam. round. Our flu is 14" x 5" oval. So they had to squish the liner and make it oval too.
The fireplace looks so big when it's clean and the doors are gone.
I wonder if this technique is documented in the installation manual? :scratch
Brian's almost ready to slide 'er in. BTW, Brian is a symphony tuba player (tubist?), and has travelled all over the world with his tuba.
oooo....the beautiful gold-plated door. That sucker is heavy!
It's been installed for about 9 days now, and I've only burned myself twice. On the right arm, one inch apart. :hurt Fishwife has adorned it with hearth stuff and we're warm and toasty. Highly recommended and only costs half of what Andy's camera cost. :1drink
Here it is today:
The end.
Here's my little photo essay, if you're as bored as I am...
This is a 500lb cold steel stove, made in the Great White North (tm), eh. 24k gold plated cast iron door. Some serious hardware, no doubt about it.
First thing we gotta do is get a guy on the roof and have him give the 25' chimney a good sweeping. Better him than me, cuz I'm afraid of heights. :yikes
Hi Gary! :wave
Had to have a custom double walled flexible stainless flu liner made. They're typically 6" diam. round. Our flu is 14" x 5" oval. So they had to squish the liner and make it oval too.
The fireplace looks so big when it's clean and the doors are gone.
I wonder if this technique is documented in the installation manual? :scratch
Brian's almost ready to slide 'er in. BTW, Brian is a symphony tuba player (tubist?), and has travelled all over the world with his tuba.
oooo....the beautiful gold-plated door. That sucker is heavy!
It's been installed for about 9 days now, and I've only burned myself twice. On the right arm, one inch apart. :hurt Fishwife has adorned it with hearth stuff and we're warm and toasty. Highly recommended and only costs half of what Andy's camera cost. :1drink
Here it is today:
The end.
"Consulting the rules of composition before taking a photograph, is like consulting the laws of gravity before going for a walk." - Edward Weston
"The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over."-Hunter S.Thompson
"The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over."-Hunter S.Thompson
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Comments
.... all warm and cozy!
Great photojournalist job there.
Now, have you priced what several cords of firewood costs added to the price you paid for the burnin' rig 'o steel? Is that like buying an L-lens for a 1D mkII?
I hope you're thermastat can collect some dust for a while to come.
[btw, where's a smilie for burning something? something warm, and on fire?]
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=20598&item=5957625052&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
"The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over."-Hunter S.Thompson
overboard
Seymore...what's with all the TLAs?
ian
what a wuss! don't you live in lefty-fornia? crimony. you want cold, come to ny
hmm....
nice photo essay, well done and i enjoyed it.
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Nice fireplace, fish.
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So I am happy for you and yours.
Hard to have sympathy for one who lives in Cali complain'n bout his heat'n bills.
Tim
Today it's 39 degrees here
Yeah, How much heat do you need in California?
How cold does it get where you are? or is it just the PG&E are too expensive?
Cincinnati Smug Leader
I see you purchased the bargain model; the one without the custom
marshmallow access panel.
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I really like it, fish. It is even good looking.
I knew someone very well who heated his whole house with a wood burning stove for at least five years. He never connected or had central heat. As long as he lived in the house it was that stove. The only problem being, I never wanted to get too far from it, and first thing in the AM, it was like the old pioneers.
That was in Charlotte, North Carolina. OK, not NY, but it gets a lot colder than you all think, just maybe not as often. Cold is cold, I have learned that. I would rather have the right gear at temps below zero than just throw on a coat because it is not below zero, just 33 degrees.
Here in Charleston, my batteries for the Rebel were running out of juice almost as fast as I could put them in. I guess I am in denial about winter here, too, I had never read Andy's thing on winter, but I did put 2 & 2 together re the batteries and the connection to cold weather.
Nice Heat, Fish!
ginger
As Mark Twain said:
"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San
Francisco."
He also said:
"Wagner's music is better than it sounds."
"Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer."
and
"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But, when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years."
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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
We occasionally get down into the teens in winter. Mostly, where I am (understand there are lots of microclimates in the SF Bay Area) in the winter we hit the 60s as a high during the day and drops down into the 30-40s at night. It's not unusual to have a 30 degree temp range. What's great is that in the summer, we regularly hit the 90s during the day, then in the evening, the coastal fog will creep over the hill and we'll drop down into the 50s-60's at night.
So not as cold as a lot of places, but cold enough that we need heat.
And to answer your last question, gas prices are insane. Cordwood is far cheaper, assuming a reasonably efficient combustion device.
"The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over."-Hunter S.Thompson